Week Eight Task 2

A common question that you hear at the Red Cross: "Are you allergic to latex?" The nurses ask this question to donors before putting on their gloves and starting the procedure. They use cornstarch to powder gloves in packaging, and some people can get respiratory systems from the powder getting in the air and getting inhaled. The best thing to do if allergic to latex is to avoid contact with it, but sometimes that isn't so easy and they have to make it known to people around them. An allergy to latex sometimes comes from people who have a lot of surgeries or who work in the medical field and are constantly exposed. I imagine that it must be extremely difficult for them to enter a hospital. Some symptoms that can come from contact with latex, if allergic, is eczema and contact dermatitis. Besides the health risks from working with blood, I think that this is one of the other common health safety issues we could be around at Red Cross.